random thoughts

Calvin is now 3 months old. He's a little smiler and grins all the time. He has moments of crying but there is usually something I can do about it. He kindof giggled for the first time today - I was tickling his neck. He's a pacifier baby. He needs to have it when he's sleeping. I hope this isn't going to be an annoying issue. I turned him to sleep on his tummy when he was about a month and a half old. He slept SO much better that way. He didn't really care much for swaddling. I would just guess he's around 16 lbs. He's wearing 6 month size clothes and moving up from a size 2 to size 3 diaper this week. Crazy. He already feels like a hefty strong child. Dave thinks he is going to be crawling before Violet. She crawled the day she turned 7 months old. We'll see. Violet ... what can I say. Her new phrases she says now are: "I need that" and "I want this...or that" and "do it again!" and "help me" (which means I want to help you but she gets her "you" and "me" mixed up) and "read a book". She's putting together lots of sentences. She says "mama's hair all wet" and "Mama get Calvin's pacifier". She either prefers "hold you" which she pronounces "holdjyou" on the toilet or the potty seat when she goes to the bathroom. Sometimes she resists going potty - but all we have to do is start reading one of books and she gets interested right away. The other day we were in the car and she saw some birds. She said "airplane!" and I said to her "no, actually, those are birds". She must have taken note. The next morning, she looked out a window and saw something in the air, and started mumbling something like "birds! no, its an airplane!" haha! She still eats a bowl of oatmeal every morning. She asks for it. "OBO!" enthusiastically. Her favorite thing lately is to watch her letter video. Elmo is becoming less of an obsession. The says "vetters!" - it is The Letter Factory by LeapFrog. She knows all the sounds all the letters make. She can say her entire alphabet through including the "now I know my ABCs, next time won't you sing with me" part of the song. The LMNOP is more like "llalalalalalala...o...p" She also likes to show Calvin things. She says "oh, Calvin! look outside at the train!" more like "taw-wah, train! train go bye bye!" She's a very sensitive child. She neeeeds to know exactly where I am. If we're in a crowd or with other people in a house, I can't even go to the bathroom or change Calvin's diaper without her coming with me - the idea of me leaving her is devastating. I go to MOPS and the workout at Orchard Hill and leave her in the child care area - and she freaks out, demands to hold my hand, tells me she has to pee, ANYTHING to try to stay with me. Its so hard to leave her when she's screaming. The child care helpers tell me that she calms down quickly and starts to play with the other kids, which is good news. I just don't like creating that unsettling feeling in her. I think she's mostly "day-time" potty trained. She tells us when she has to pee and poop and goes on the potty all the time during the day. She still wets the bed during naps occasionally and always wakes up with a wet diaper. I hope time takes care of that. The other day, she told me in the bathroom "no pee in underwear - pee on the potty". And when we pray with her at nighttime, she "takes turns" with us praying and her prayer is this "help me pee and poopy - aaaamen!" She loves to look at pictures of family members. She recognizes Aunt Carrie, Uncle Josh, Austin, Nay-Nay (Renee), Uncle Tim, Aunt Debbie, Kala, some of Sean and April's kids, Grandma Jo and Grandpa Jon (mago and magon!) and Aunt Rachel (Aunt Eee-aww) and Uncle Jay and Molly. When Dave comes up from work during the day to take a short break or use the bathroom ... she says "daddy's all done!" but then Dave says "no, daddy is just taking a break." She says "taking a break!" And when he comes up, she enthusiasically runs to the door and excitedly says "Daddy ALL DONE!" I think she knows the difference between being all done and taking a break. Favorite foods: chicken strips dipped in ranch, broccoli, peas, cheese, bananas, fruit snacks (hoot-nacks!), pizza, peanut butter and jelly, rice, bread, and milk. She's 29.5 lbs.

it was a phase

Bedtime drama has become a phase. She's no longer screaming...but she's always reluctant to go to bed. She demands tons of kisses and hugs and crys sometimes, but not nearly as bad as before. Violet is nearly potty trained now! It seems ever since we started praying with her, thanking God for helping her pee and poop on the potty, she likes to use the toilet. She is in underwear most of the time now - and she nearly 100% of the time tells me she has to go. She had an accident today during her nap. I went down to her room when I heard her wake up and she said "uh oh! all wet!" Calvin is a little smiler. He's turning into a pretty pleasant baby. He definitely still has his screaming/fussing moments. He wakes up at night once or twice to eat and sometimes goes back to sleep in his basinette (higher part of the pack and play), but sometimes he needs to stay in bed with me. He sleeps next to me in bed for the last 1/2 of the night pretty well too. Violet is learning so many new concepts lately. Her favorites: 1 blanket, 2 blankets. Upside down Other side Other way Turn in a circle Jump! Bounce! Dance! the entire alphabet A says "ah", B says "Buh", etc. She can do lots of the letters. Identifying some letters (IOWA shirt, for example)

ugh, bedtime has become a nightmare

Like the flip of a switch, Violet is all of a sudden TERRIFIED to go to bed. She freaks out when I put her down for a nap and freaks out even more when its time for bed. She makes up a million excuses to not have to go to bed. She's always been my happy-to-go-to-sleep and sleep-through-the-night girl since birth, so this is scaring me a little. She demands me to lay down with her. She uses my first name! She says "Maria! lay down pillow!!!!" over and over and over and calms down the moment my head hits the pillow next to her. If I get up and leave before she completely falls asleep, she gets out of bed and screams bloody murder til I come back. I have to wait til she's completely asleep to leave the room. I can't keep doing this!!

embarassed!

Picture this scene. Violet isn't wearing any underwear or diapers because I'm getting her to pee on the toilet. I'm holding Calvin and nursing him standing up. We are both standing by the sliding glass patio doors watching the snow fall. The UPS guy walks up to deliver a package and sees me nursing Calvin and then sees Violet with just a t-shirt on. He quickly dropped the package by the door and walked away quickly. I wonder who was more embarassed!!!!???? Aghhh!!!

Violet's latest

I love how she says this: "Where is it? Oh, oh, here it is!" when she's looking for something. "Where is it ball? Oh, oh, here it is ball!" She's also got "me" and "you" mixed up. She says "hold you!" if she wants us to hold her and "help me" if she wants you to help her. :) Wonder when that will get straightened out?

She's doing quite well in her big girl bed!

She's officially out of her crib and into the queen size bed in her room. She's been sleeping great! Only the first few times did she get up and try get out of naptime, but we put her right back and she stays. She's sleeping well from 8 pm to 8 am (a general guideline...). Sometimes she'll sleep even longer.

She still sleeps with her little yellow pillow, the pink and purple blankets, another flowery blanket, green monkey, buddy bear (ba-bil-ow), and Elmo. The other day we caught her sleeping in her bed smashed in the corner against the wall.

At her 2 year checkup, she was 35" tall and 29 lbs.

Calvin's first smiles

Calvin is starting to smile now! He's 6 weeks old. I've been too busy to sit down and type anything. He's gaining weight fast and is sleepin *decent* at night. He'll go for a 4-5 (sometimes even a 6) hour stretch, feed, and sometimes go right back to sleep. He's a lot more gassy of a baby than Violet was! He burps and farts so much more. He also takes a paci - he loves to suck!

We finally got the kid's bedroom switched. Since Dave moved his office to the basement, we painted that room and made it Violet's. She's sleeping in the queen size bed. Calvin has new bedding and moved into her old room with the crib and the changing table.

Dave has a funny story from this morning that he told me about. Last night was Violet's first whole night sleeping in her big queen bed. I think she slept in it the whole night, I'm not sure. Dave came back in the house after having coffee with Eric this morning, and he walked into find Violet standing in the middle of the living room, clutching her blankets. She had woken up on her own, pulled the towel off the window in her room (don't have window coverings up yet!), and walked out into the house by herself. I was still sleeping through this! How funny. We're onto the next stage in her life when she can do almost everything by herself. Next stage of life is potty-training....oh my!

Hospital pictures of Calvin's birth (and my 41 week belly pic)

Calvin David LaMarche was born 12-28-07!

My blog to my friends/family - c/p'ed here so I could record it: Written on 12/28/07: Right now I'm sittin' in the hospital bed. I am incredibly tired - and very drugged. I feel like at any moment my head could fall over and I'd be drooling dead asleep. Ok...first of all....I'm so thankful for this c-section. This baby would NOT have fit if I did end up going into labor and attempting a VBAC. The midwife and doctors both said they're glad I didn't have to find out what would have happened. (9 lbs 13.6 oz). Calvin was not quite as big as Violet, but his head measured around even bigger than hers did at birth. Wowza! So we woke up this morning at 4 am. I didn't sleep much.....maybe 2 hours of good sleep, the rest I attempted was pretty much tossing and turning. We got to our room, I got the IV and catheter put in, and then just waited. When the time came, I walked down to the surgery room and they got my spinal put in. The anesthesiologist did a GREAT job. I felt a couple minor pinches than was completely warm and numb. They did the incision at 7:33 and got Calvin out by 7:44 am. I was out of the surgery room around 8:30. I nursed him as soon as he got to the room. He opened up wide and latched on like a pro. He nursed for a good 15 minutes and switched sides, and nursed for 15 min on the other side. What a great start!!! He's SO cute!! He looks so much like Violet when she was a newborn. So today, I've been resting a lot. I walked up and down the hall for about 10 minutes already. Lots of pressure and pain at the incision site as I expected. My sister brought Violet to see us after she ate breakfast. She did SOOOOO good!! She immediately said "baby! baby! baby!" when she first saw Calvin. She got to "hold" him and she kissed him, pointing out his eyes, his lips, his hat, etc. We were both enamored to tears.

random antics...

Violet is such a goon lately. She is starting to talk SO much more. Lately she has been going on and on on these random tangents of talking. She'll blab and blab as if she's telling a story with her arms waving, hands pointing, and facial expressions.

Today's the due date

No progress. I'm pretty disappointed. After last week's false labor episode on Sunday morning I had a little hope that maybe it would start up again. But today I'm due and nothing. The midwife said I am not dilated at all.

Cervical pain

I have been feeling so much pain in/on/near my cervix this pregnancy. I never experienced this when I was pregnant with Violet. I am HOPING that is it is a good sign that I'll efface and dilate - since I've been going to the chiropractor this pregnancy, maybe my muscles are looser? I don't know. Just wanted to document that. :) I'm 4 weeks away from meeting our next baby!!!

fush! fush! fush!

Violet is obsessed with flushing the toilet. When she poos on the potty - or if I go, or if Dave goes, or for that matter, if ANYBODY goes on the potty, she notices and insists on flushing. The first time she got to do it, she would have a royal meltdown with screaming and crying if she was unable to flush - but after a few days, she realized she wasn't going to be allowed to flush for every single person in the house. We're at Grandma Martha's house for Thanksgiving this year in Chicago. The big meal is at Uncle Roger and Aunt Mary's in Naperville tomorrow.

Hep mama! Hep mama!

Violet has really been obsessed with helping lately. She says "hep mama! Hep mama! Hep mama!" if I'm doing something in the kitchen...so we pull up a chair, she stands on it, and "helps" me measure out things, pour stuff into bowls, and basically plays in the drawer that has all the measuring cups/spoons in it. It really slows down my progress, but I don't mind unless I'm trying to MAKE progress baking for the shop or something. She isn't allowed in the kitchen when I'm bakin'. But this morning we made pancakes, and she helped measuring all the ingredients...the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, milk, oil, and even cracked the egg. She squeezed it with all her might and got her hands all eggy, but miraculously, no shell fell in! So, I went with it. She even ate 2 pancakes and got a kick out me flipping them from side to side.

Tonight she insisted on helping Dave assemble the casserole we planned for supper. She repeats everything he says! Its sooo cute!

Starting to feel ready for this baby!

I am now 7 mo pregnant!

I should post a new belly picture. I really feel like this baby moves a LOT more than Violet did while in utero. Maybe my muscles and uterus are more stretched out this time. Who knows. I've been seeing a chiropractor to help me get "balanced" (my right side was really tight!) and loosened up for delivery. I'm attempting a VBAC. I'm feeling 50% confident it'll happen.

So...Violet is crazy. She knows so many words now. We got her a book of First 100 Words and she can point out almost everything. Car, duck, truck, train, milk, ball, baby, blanket, etc...it goes on and on. She likes to say "uck uck!" for "stuck". She says "shoes on! shoes on!" all the time and wants to run around the house in her shoes. Her favorite thing lately is holding anything with a strap on it on her shoulder like a purse.

She got to be with my parents last weekend. Dave and I went to Sara and Andy's wedding in MN. I think my mom and dad had a lot of fun with her!!

She stopped using her left hand to guide the spoon into her mouth. She used to insist on using both hands to spoon food to her mouth, but suddenly she dropped the habit.

She will be 2 very soon!

This baby is still mystery baby! We don't have any names picked out. Its so hard picking names.

I went to the ER last night

I must have caught some kind of virus. Wednesday night (Sept 12th) after eating supper I felt a little weird. I went to bed that night, and woke up at 3 am with an incredible urge to throw up. I barely made it to the toilet. Everything I had eaten came up. I tried drinking a little water to wash my mouth out and went to bed. I woke up again at 7:00 am the morning of the 13th and threw up the water and more food. Yuck. Dave had just left for a short trip so he was gone. I tried to stomach 1/2 a banana, but I also threw that up. I had an appointment with the midwife for my 25 week check up and I brought up my concerns with her. She said I was pretty dehydrated and said since I couldn't keep food down, to stick to a liquid diet. I went to Fareway and got Gatorade, Sprite, Ginger Ale, and foods for the BRAT diet. Turns out I couldn't keep liquids down either. That night...I was feeling so miserable. Taking care of Violet while feeling horrible was really hard. I was hungry, yet didn't have an appetite...I was thirsty...but couldn't keep down liquids. I paged the midwife that night and asked her what she thought I should do. She suggested I go to the ER for fluids. I called my mom and she drove down to my house. She's too sweet. She left Mason City at 10:30 and got in at midnight. I took off to the hospital at midnight, and left at 4 am. I immediately felt better!! I went home and slept from 4:30-8:00. My mom stayed to help me while I rested and she left shortly before Dave got home from his trip at 3 pm.

Update on Violet - 19 mo - and I am about 6 months pregnant!

Its been awhile since I posted. Violet is now a full-blown toddler! She's running around everywhere and climbing up on everything. She is talking so much more now. I'm going to try remember everything she can say: mama dada gaga up ice Abby Baba - blanket gara (garage) poon (spoon) obo (oatmeal) hah-dah (hot dog) wawa (water) muh (milk) bah (ball) poopoo car buh-um (button) fan hat bub-bye! luh-oo (luv you) hungry hi buh (book) caca (cracker) uh oh dog cat puh-puh-puh (porcupine) - her current favorite animal in the animal book papa (sometimes for grandpa) ba-room (bathroom) ba (bath) cup shoe some form of the word "diaper" Ah-AH (all done) duck stuck liy (light) muh-muh-muh (more more more!) -- which usually means "I need help with something!" paypah - paper joos (juice) peees (please) teeth gah-ih (got it) some form of "noodle" - it usually sounds like "goo-gah" cheese owie eyes arm hand boah (boat) something for "train" - not sure I could even use letters to make the sound she makes! gaga = banana hah! hah! = hot bihr = bird mmmmMMAAHHH = a kiss nih nih = night night I'm sure I forgot some....but thats the majority I think. I think I'm going to stop keeping track!! That was hard! She loves the jack-in-the-box that Grandma Jo got her. She winds the knob to play the song herself, but she holds the top that pops up down so it doesn't scare her in the middle of the song. She knows exactly when its going to pop up and she even slows down when its about to! It took her awhile to get used to it. She was scared at first, but she's slowly warmed up to it. She likes to drag things around the house too. She has formed an attachment to her little yellow pillow and her two blankets. The pink one and the purple one. She can't sleep without them, it seems. When its time for naptime or bedtime, she says "baba! papa!" for her blanket and pillow. When she does get them, the pillow gets a big hug. She fights to shove the whole pillow under her belly, then watches carefully as we lay BOTH (not one or the other) blankets on top of her. Then the fan gets turned on, and she goes to sleep after kicking her leg repeatedly for awhile. The napping thing is a little confusing. She is always so exhausted at 10 am and thats her normal nap time, but she goes down for a nap and doesn't sleep, and if she does, its for 15 min and she's up whining. So, I'm going to try push that nap back to after lunch, then maybe she'd sleep longer. She is eating almost everything we eat now. I don't fix her any special meals. She likes meat! She'll munch on pieces of chicken, pork, beef, and ham. She still likes chunks of cheese and a pile of pinto beans. The other night I got her to eat a big bowl of broccoli with cheese on it. She loved it! She must have been really hungry. She's not as whiney and clingy for my time. She is venturing off to play with toys on her own more. It gives me a little rest time as right now I'm 6 months pregnant and rest is much needed. I consider Violet 100% poopy-trained. She'll usually tell me if she has to go poopie, and we go take care of business on the toilet. I don't know when I'll start with the pee. I might get ambitious and get her trained before this baby comes...who knows. It is nice not having to change poopy diapers! She sleeps from 7:30-8:00 pm (bedtime) to around 8:00 am. I love that she doesn't get me up at 6 am like some of my friends' kids do. My mom taught her how to get a strap of a purse over her shoulder. Now all she wants to do with something with a strap is put it over her shoulder. So, she's been dragging her black diaper bag around on her shoulder all day. Then a toy with a string on it, then a little green bag with straps...anything. Dave says "oh no! she looks like a 'little girl' way too soon already!" I'm nervous about how she'll do with the new baby. She gets really jealous if I pay attention to other kids or hold other babies. So far, this pregnancy has been going great!! I only got a slight rash on my belly that lasted about a week. I haven't been sick, I've been eating well, and the baby is very healthy. I thank God so much for no problems. I've kept my weight down this pregnancy...managed better this time around. I have gained about 20 lbs so far. I gained over 50+ with Violet. Thankfully though, I lost all the weight before getting pregnant again, so my starting weight was 170, a weight I'm happy with. I'm trying to stay under 200 with this baby. We need to decide on names!! We're still tossing some around. Definitely not decided though.

update...

Well, its been a month since writing anything here. I should at least put on here a belly shot!! With baby #2...we are keeping the gender a surprise again. I am 22 or 23 weeks along now. I have already had my 20 week ultrasound and everything looks perfect. What a blessing! I just hope I go into labor on my own this time so I avoid a c-section again. Either way, the goal is to have a healthy mom and baby, no matter how he or she comes out.

Violet is crazy. That's the only word I can come up with to describe her. Her hair is wild and curly, and her personality is shining. She loves to giggle. She likes finding little things that "surprise" me so I react when she surprises me. Her giggle is sounding so much more adult like. She is running everywhere and climbs up on everything. I tried writing down everything she says, so I'll try again and hopefully I won't miss anything.

mama, gaga (dada), ca = cat, ga = dog, bir = bird, obo = oatmeal, mah - milk, wawa - water, up, heh = help, uh oh, poopoo, ba = bath, baba = blanket, baba/paba = pillow, papa = grandpa, puhpuhpuh = porcupine, byebye, bah = book, luh-oo = love you, mah-mah = more, muh = milk, Abuh = Abby, hah = hot, baby, tee = teeth, cheese, hot dog

28 words that she uses consistently! That's pretty impressive I think for her age. The pediatrician said at her 18 mo check up that 5-15 words is normal for kids her age.

I got her to eat broccoli smothered in cheese last night. She wanted bite after bite!

She loves having phone conversations. She will bring me a play phone and want me to have a conversation with someone, then say "bye bye!". She gets a kick out of it! Also, when I talk to Dave on the phone, she'll run over and say "gaga gaga!" then have a "conversation" with him...which always turns out to be him asking her to say things. He'll say "bye bye!" and she'll repeat with an enthusiastic "bye BYYYYE" in a high pitched voice so I know when they're done "talking.". She gave the phone a big kiss saying "mmmmmmmmMMAAAAAAA".

She's totally poopy-trained I think. If she has to go, she'll tell me "poopie" and if I set her on the toilet when she says that, she'll go poopie. I think that's amazing!

She has 12 teeth. 27 lbs, 33 1/4" tall.

Clips and steps

She's mastered so many things in the last week: - eating with a spoon. It only took her 4 days to get it right and not dump it upside down before it hits her mouth. She eats her oatmeal all by herself in the morning. The first day was a complete mess as well as the 2nd. I had to hose down the whole eating chair she uses. The next couple days were much, much better. - eating with a fork (sortof). I gave her a plate of lima beans and she ate 1/2 of them by stabbing each little green lima bean with a fork. - She walks down stairs with nothing to hang onto now. The outside cement steps are a breeze. I hold onto her hand doing downstairs in the house because there are so many and if she fell it would be a huge fall. - She LOVES clipping things together. The plastic clips that hold her down on the changing table, the clips that hold her life jacket together, anything that clips together! She can't unclip it yet though, so when she does get it together, she gets so excited, claps, then gets frustrated that its stuck...so I unclip it every time so she can keep playing. :)

I never find time to sit down anymore!

17 months old now. Wow! Almost a year and a half. I am going to make this brief...but sortof detailed. I only have a few minutes and I feel like (lately anyway) that if I don't do something as soon as I think of it, it won't get done at all. Thats how it is with journaling online. Violet is running around now (not so much walking!) and to sum up her personality, I would say a giggly copycat. She's always copying everything we do, from our expressions, to how we move our hands, to how we "dance", for example: Dave was explaining something while we were eating breakfast, and he was knocking his knuckles on the counter. Violet started doing the same thing. Then he knocked with both hands, and she followed suit. Every time she copies something, she looks at us to get attention and laughs. She loves kissing. She'll walk up to me and go "mmmmmm!!" and expect a big "muuahhhh" in return. She lately started banging her face into ours very quickly and "kissing" us every single time. She still uses her sign language a lot. She's 32 1/2" tall, and 25-26 lbs. Not sure on the weight...it goes up and down a lot. She likes bananas now. Sometimes she'll eat a whole one as fast as me. Sometimes she'll take one bite and refuse the rest....so I never know how bananas will go over. Anything else I remember, and I'll try come back and post it!